


Saving You

by Alexis_Payton



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 16:23:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4528854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexis_Payton/pseuds/Alexis_Payton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the aftermath of Emma's selfless sacrifice, Regina is left with a multitude of questions and some answers she hadn't realised that she's always had. Set directly after 4B finale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Saving You

 

After the inky tornado of darkness had dissipated, and with it Emma Swan, those gathered at the deserted intersection in Storybrooke, stood stunned and silent for a long and tensed moment after.

It was Regina who moved first, tears in her eyes, hands fiercely trembling as she pushed out of Robin’s arms. Her legs wobbled while she tentatively walked toward the Dark One’s dagger which lay on the damp tar road, menacingly glittering under the streetlights.

Slowly she knelt down in front of it, gasping out a wounded sob when she saw the name written in the neat calligraphy that now adorned to cursed blade. Hearing the footsteps approaching behind her, Regina quickly snatched up the dagger, hugged it to her chest and turned around to face the others.

“Perhaps it would be better if either myself or Swan’s parents held on to that?” A heartbroken Killian suggested, already holding out his only hand.

Regina just held on tighter to the dagger. She had watched and heard Emma tell the pirate that she loved him. She couldn’t imagine what Hook must be feeling in that moment. Hell, Regina wasn’t quite sure what _she_ was feeling. All she knew was that her heart had yet to cease it’s loud hammering and that the dagger she held against it, somehow felt like Emma.

She swallowed thickly and turned to Snow and David, who predictably looked devastated.

“Whoever holds this dagger has absolute control over Emma.” Regina sniffed, attempting to gather herself in front of these people. “I have magic. I can protect it from whomever wishes to take advantage of her power.”

“I would never take advantage of her.” Hook indignantly defended.

Regina wanted to be angry with him. She wasn’t sure why she wasn’t already insulting him like she usually would. It just felt wrong in that moment. To be petty and cruel after what Emma had just done. For _her_. Not for Henry or Storybrooke or her parents. Emma Swan had sacrificed herself for the sole purpose of Regina’s happiness...

“That’s not what I said.” She looked Killian straight in the eye. Begging him to not pick a fight with her now. Regina wasn’t sure what she’d do if he’d continue to push this. After all, she didn’t see him do much to stop Emma – not that anyone could stop that stubborn idiot from doing what she felt was right. But Killian could’ve at least _tried_ to take the dagger from Emma, Regina thought.

As if sensing Regina’s sincerity, Hook awkwardly nodded and looked to Emma’s parents.

“Emma trusts you, so we trust you.” Snow sadly murmured from her position under David’s arm.

“Thank you.” Regina whispered, hugging the dagger even more tightly to her. “I will protect it with my life.” She vowed, still feeling somewhat dazed and honestly confused at the events of that the day.

She allowed Robin to put his arm around her again, guiding her down the road as they made their way back to the Pawn Shop. To Henry. Once there, Regina’s son replaced her Soul Mate at her side while he listened to his grandparents explain what had happened to his blonde mother.

Regina could barely look at him during that time.

The guilt was overwhelming. Emma should’ve just let her become the Dark One. Regina’s heart was dark already, that’s why it had sought her out in the first place. Nobody would’ve cared if it had been her. But no, that idiot was always jumping in out of nowhere and saving Regina from her fate.

Another sob escaped her and she felt Henry holding her closer, softly crying too. She let him hold her, god, she knew she should be holding him, but something had snapped in her as she watched Emma courageously thrust that dagger into the air and take the darkness into herself. There was something in the blonde’s eyes as they stared at each other. Something Regina had seen a few times before, but had always bypassed as her imagination and more recently, as just wishful thinking.

She pushed it aside for the moment, to focus on her son. On _their_ son. Her and Emma’s. She softly promised him that she would take care of the dagger. That she would do everything in her power to separate it from Emma. And she watched him believe her, watched him get that look of hope in his eyes. And maybe Regina didn’t have a clue as to where to start fulfilling that second vow, but she did know that she had meant it with all of her heart.

David and Snow saw her resolution too. Even Killian offered his assistance, which she accepted with a gracious nod. And then they were all off, making Regina promise to let them know once she’d spoken to Emma. So that if possible, they could please speak to her too.

Regina sent Henry with them, saying she wanted to get started on finding a solution. Henry wanted to come too, but she explained that he should come by in the morning, when she would hopefully have a plan of action. Honestly, Regina just needed some time alone to try and process everything.

At his insistence, she allowed Robin to walk her back to the mansion. They were silent throughout the fifteen minute walk. His large arm growing increasingly heavier around her shoulders.

Regina’s mind continued to race a mile a minute.

Finally, she stopped at her front door and unlocked it. Feeling Robin moving closely behind her to come in. She turned around then and placed a hand to his chest, gently pushing till he took a step back with a puzzled frown.

“Would you rather be alone?” He tentatively asked.

Regina inhaled a shuddering breath and looked up into questioning eyes.

“It’s been twice now that I’ve been told that you were my Happy Ending and couldn’t bring myself to go to you.” Regina began. “Firstly, all those years ago, when the pixie dust led me to you. And then today again when I couldn’t go into that church and kiss you or at least object to your impending marriage.”

“Regina, those were extenuating circumstances. We had just met. Why would you kiss a stranger?” He argued, and very fairly at that.

“When I cast the Dark Curse, it was specifically to keep Snow and David apart.” Regina smirked. “Yet, even though he was married to someone else and couldn’t remember her, their draw was so strong that they couldn’t stay away from one another. They would’ve stayed together in Neverland if Rumple hadn’t found a cure for the Dreamshade David had been poisoned with. Without their friends and family. Content as long as they had each other...”

“I felt a connection with you today as well. Even when I didn’t know you.” Robin interrupted her, as though sensing where Regina was going with her current train of thought.

Regina nodded, she had felt something too. “I think it might’ve just been a simple attraction.” She pondered one of the thousand thoughts that had assaulted her after watching Emma’s intense green eyes staring right into her very being. “An attraction expounded by everyone telling me that I had to feel a certain way about you...”

Regina had always had a taste for rugged men. Those outdoorsy types like Daniel and Graham. Carefree men with little ambition to gain power and status. Men who stood opposed to others like George and Leopold who made her skin crawl and had tried to exert their power over her. Robin the forest bandit, who stole from the rich and gave to the poor, was their antithesis in every way. The anti-king Regina could stomach being around...

“No, Regina. We are meant to be together!” He insisted. Distressed at what he was hearing. “You and me, Roland and Henry... _That’s_ our Happy Ending.”

And that was the problem right there, wasn’t it? Henry already had a family. Because Regina might’ve felt something for Robin in Isaac’s world. But on that walk from her hideout toward the church, she had felt all kinds of things while she spoke with Emma and Henry. The three of them together had felt _right_. Familiar. Even when she couldn’t remember either of them, she somehow knew that they belonged together.

“Aren’t you forgetting your child with Zelena?” She bitterly asked.

Robin sighed. “I’m sorry, but I can’t change that now.” He lamented. “And of course the child would be raised by us as well. We had discussed this already. You said that you had accepted it...”

Regina chuckled sullenly.

“You treated me like a jealous ex lover when I told you who she was in New York.”

Emma would’ve believed her. They’d grown so close these last few months that Regina knew it as a resolute fact that Emma would’ve trusted that what she’d said was the truth even without any proof.

“Regina –

\- How could you not notice that it wasn’t your _wife_ you were sleeping with?” Regina wondered incredulously, not for the first time, though it was her first time actually asking Robin. “Zelena is very deceptive, but she couldn’t be _that_ good an actress, surely?” It made no sense.

“It had been a long time since I had last been with Marian.” He let out a long suffering sigh. “In some ways she did act differently, in others she was the same... Things change Regina, people change. I could hardly fault her that.”

“I’ve changed too, Robin.” She hugged her arms around her stomach, shivering lightly when Emma’s dagger caressed against her waist with the movement. “I believe that if you and I were meant to be together, you would’ve chosen _me_ and not Marian or Zelena. No matter what.”

“She was my wife, Regina. It was the honourable thing to do.”

“As honourable as sleeping with me while your _wife_ lay incapacitated?” Regina’s voice rose and tears shot in her eyes again. “I was so desperate for my Happy Ending... So excited that I could have this chance... Looking back now I realise that I don’t even love you.” Regina flinched as the words seemed to strike Robin across the face. “I was in love with the idea of ‘us’. Polluted by fairies and princesses whining about what a ‘Happy Ending’ was supposed to look like.”

She’d already had her Happy Ending. Regina had realised this when it was too late. Her Happy Ending was Henry smiling at her and talking about his comics, or doing his homework in his room upstairs. It was Emma bringing her lunch at her office and complaining about the ‘rabbit food’ she ate. It was the three of them sitting down to dinner at Granny’s and just talking and laughing even when they’d been under threat from Rumplestiltskin and the Queens of Darkness. They were a team, the three of them. Regina, Emma and Henry. They’d been through so much and came out only stronger. They were a _family_ , and it was in those moments that Regina hadn’t wanted for anything. She was content and happy.

“You can’t mean this.” Robin looked close to tears and for some inexplicable reason that made Regina angry.

“I’m done running after you.” She lifted her chin even as it trembled and straightened her spine. “Ever since I met you, you’ve only hurt me over and over again. And I don’t care what the pixie dust says, I’m going to be an exemplar for my son. Show him that I can be strong on my own, that I won’t completely breakdown just because I don’t have a _boyfriend_ in my life.”

Robin stood gaping at her.

“Don’t you see?” Regina sneered. “We spent close to a year together in the Enchanted Forest, a few weeks here in Storybrooke. That’s enough time to figure out what we wanted and yet I’ve been breaking up with you for the last ten minutes and you still haven’t told me that you love me.”

“But I do! I do love you!” He earnestly professed.

“Maybe.” Regina sighed. “But you don’t love me enough.”

She swallowed thickly again. “I would like to continue seeing Roland if you’d permit it. But for now I would appreciate if you left me alone while I concentrate on Emma and making sure that my son is okay after recent developments.” She very formally requested.

Robin just nodded in a bemusement, seemingly unsure of what was happening.

“Thank you, Robin.” Regina murmured, walked inside her house and closed the door on that chapter of her life.

* * *

 

Regina sat on the couch in her study, blindly staring at the dagger resting on her lap. It had been over an hour since Robin had left. She’d barely spared him a thought since. There was no regret, she actually felt somewhat relieved. Lighter. He’d caused her nothing but heartache.

So much for soul mates and destiny.

Regina had been a young princess once upon a time. And though she would never admit it out loud, she’d dreamt of a White Knight riding up to their castle and saving her from the torture of living under Cora’s abusive rule. And although she’d learned – albeit very painfully and destructively – that there would be no one to save her but herself, there had still been that hope that one day she would be swept away from it all. And that she would finally know what it felt like to feel safe and protected.

And then Emma Swan arrived in her life. Upsetting her little world so much that Regina didn’t even notice it at first. All these years and the Saviour was always there, wasn’t she? Saving Regina from fires, kidnappings, angry mobs and wraiths. From _herself_. Yes, Emma had hurt Regina too, she’d made mistakes. They’d hurt and disappointed each other too many times. But they’d saved each other just as much.

And these last few weeks? Everything had just come together perfectly. Regina and Emma had always understood each other in a way that nobody else ever could or would. Regina had been groomed by Rumplestiltskin to cast the Dark Curse and once she’d fulfilled that destiny, it had necessitated the birth of a Saviour to undo it all. They both wouldn’t exist without the other. At least not as the women that they currently were. Had Regina not cast the curse, Emma would’ve grown up a spoiled princess. She wouldn’t be the headstrong, protective Saviour she was now. And Regina would’ve never found Henry. She would’ve stewed in her own rage and grief until there was nothing left of her any longer. Regina and Emma had been born to influence the other. To exist as both tormentor and saviour for one another until they found that perfect balance. That common ground where everything just clicked into place.

And they’d found it. Now they protected one another. They made selfless sacrifices just so that the other would be happy...

Regina carefully picked up the dagger and traced a perfectly manicured fingertip over the blonde’s name. Today she had felt like that little princess again, when Emma – her White Knight – had plunged that dagger into the darkness that would’ve surely consumed Regina until there was not a bit of light left inside of her...

Sighing softly, Regina closed her eyes and braced herself: “Dark One, I summon thee...” She quietly whispered, barely able to hear her words through the thrumming of her heart pulsing in her ears.

Emma appeared in front of her in magnificent whirl of dark purple, standing on the other side of her coffee table. Dressed like she had been before she had been swept away, with the addition of her red leather jacket, zipped up to below her breasts. Her thumbs were resting inside of her jean pockets and that intense green gaze was directed straight at Regina.

“Hey.” Emma breathed hesitantly, eyeing the dagger still in Regina’s hands.

The brunette barely heard the greeting as she continued to rake her eyes over the Saviour. Looking so much like herself. It would be a while still before the darkness would start to overwhelm Emma. And that was only because Emma had so much light in her to begin with.

 _It was still her Emma that was standing there_ , Regina realised with a breath of relief and rose up from her seat.

“How would you like a glass of the best apple cider you’ve ever tasted?” Regina tremulously smiled while she was inundated with nostalgia.

“Got anything stronger?” Emma smirked, finally seeming to relax and went to sit down in the armchair across from Regina seat.

* * *

 

The dagger in Regina’s grasp felt as though it weighed a ton, as she moved to pour each of them a drink. Apple cider for both, which actually was stronger than anything else the brunette had in her liquor cabinet at the moment. She ignored the burn of Emma’s eyes on her back and the tremor in her hands when she carried the glasses back to the coffee table.

She wasn’t scared of Emma. Never had been. But she was wise enough to be cautious. Even without all of that darkness inside of her, Emma Swan had never responded well to being trapped. Being tethered to the dagger had to feel like the worst of prisons. A free spirit like Emma would go insane at that confinement, at the lack of control and choice. At that feeling of helplessness and complete vulnerability to another who would be able to make her do whatever they wanted.

Regina went to sit back down on the couch after she placed the glass on the coffee table in front of Emma. She then purposely made a show of placing the dagger on the empty seat beside her. Watching as Emma eye the movement closely, before taking a sip of her cider and shifting an emerald gaze back to Regina again.

The brunette sighed and sunk into the comfortable sofa cushions that didn’t make her feel any less nervous.

“I wonder what Henry will be naming _this_ operation.” Regina smirked.

Emma snorted out a laugh that sounded like a sob; a watery smile that Regina didn’t want to think of as tragically beautiful, adorned the blonde’s face.

“Is he okay?” Emma asked, after composing herself.

Regina hummed.

“He has hope. And he knows I won’t stop until I find a way to rid you of this burden.” Regina vowed out loud again.

Emma’s eyes flicked to the dagger, then back to Regina. They shared a long intense stare, Emma’s eyes searching her face for _something_. Regina wasn’t sure what. But eventually it was the blonde who just jerkily nodded and sunk back into her seat. Looking toward the dagger again while she quietly sipped on her cider.

“Are you comfortable that I’m in possession of the dagger?” Regina tentatively ventured. “Though I believe that I’m the most equip to keep it safe, if you’d rather someone else –

\- No.” Emma simply stated. “It can only be you.”

And Emma said it so decisively. Like it wasn’t the strangest thing that she trusted Regina above everyone else. The Blue Fairy seemed like an adequate guardian for the Dark One’s dagger. Not the former Evil Queen... It made warmth swirl in Regina’s chest even while she was overcome with regret. Because Regina had trusted Robin with her heart. Her actual enchanted heart, when her entire being had wanted to give it to Emma. Yes, even _then_. But Emma had been preoccupied with the Pirate, hadn’t she? And that had made Regina even that much more determined to make things work with Robin.

“Do you want me to call, Killian?” She whispered, thinking back on how Emma had declared her love for Hook in front of God and everybody.

After only being met with silence, Regina looked up to that penetrating emerald gaze staring fixedly at her. Emma then abruptly burst into a fit of laughter. It sounded bitter and self-deprecating. Almost hysterical. It made Regina’s heart ache, and her throat tighten.

“He gave up his ship to come and find me in New York.” Emma murmured with a sad smile. “And in Isaac’s world he gave up his life without even knowing me or Henry...”

Regina nodded and took a large gulp of her cider, staring blankly at her now empty glass. She had many reasons to hate the Pirate, but she could never hate him for that. Hook loved Emma, it was painfully obvious.

“But you sacrificed yourself for Henry too.” Regina’s eyes flashed up to look into Emma’s soft gaze. “Without even really believing he was your son.” She smiled.

Regina blinked slowly, wondering where Emma was going with this.

“I couldn’t tell Hook that I loved him...” Emma confessed.

“But you did.” Regina found herself saying, almost accusingly.

Emma nodded with that sad smile again.

“He loves me so much, Regina. I thought-” Her breath hitched. “- I thought that I was supposed to tell him that after the decision I made to become the Dark One.”

And that was the real question on Regina’s mind.

“Why did you do it, Emma?” She breathlessly whispered. “Why did you save me, when everything was finally coming together in your life?”

Was it just that inherent need to protect everyone around her? That Saviour complex the blonde possessed before she had even known who she was destined to become.

“ _Why?_ ” Emma’s voice broke at the exclamation, the lights in the mansion precariously flickering as a tormented green gaze glared at her. “Why _wouldn’t_ I, Regina?”

“You said that I had worked to hard to have my happiness be taken away...” Regina remembered, but she still couldn’t understand. “What about yours?”

“Maybe you should ask yourself why _Robin_ hadn’t been the one to pick up the dagger.” Emma bitterly remarked. “Where is he anyway?” She darkly snarled.

Regina could feel the dark magic crackling through the air. She could sense the power radiating from the blonde woman seated across from her. Only fuelling Emma’s sudden anger.

“Why are you angry, Emma?” Regina softly asked. “Do you regret what you had done for me?”

Emma snorted derisively.

“I would do it again in a heartbeat.” She sneered, as if to herself, before draining her glass.

She studied it for a moment with her brows drawn together, before getting up and slowly making her way over to Regina. The brunette’s breath hitched when Emma was suddenly standing right in front of her. Wordlessly, she allowed the Dark One to remove her glass from her hand, and watched with a pounding heart as Emma refilled their glasses.

“Thank you.” Regina murmured, after taking the topped up tumbler from Emma’s hand. Their fingers brushed together, sparking even more powerfully than it ever had before. Regina sucked in a breath at the strong current, but Emma just smirked and went to sit on the other side of the coffee table again. Allowing Regina the space to breathe more easily.

“Ever since I came back to Storybrooke from New York, I’ve been obsessed with what the difference was between a Soul Mate and a True Love.” Emma’s mouth tilted slightly into a smile. “Blue told me that a Soul Mate can be a friend or a lover. Someone who understands you more easily than others, who you can physically feel a connection to. Apparently a person can have more than one... But then she said that a True Love is a Soul Mate that you cannot deny, cannot live without, that you’re drawn to no matter what the circumstances. That it’s someone who you would sacrifice anything for...” She trailed off.

Regina could just stare at her, terrified of what Emma was saying. Terrified to hope. It made too much sense though. Why it was so easy to give Robin up. To give Henry and Emma their Happy Ending without her. To do the right thing and save everyone because Regina wanted to be worthy of them.

“That makes sense, I suppose.” Regina offered noncommittally.

Green eyes flashed to her, causing Regina’s heart to almost pound right out of her chest. Emma just chuckled dryly at her cowardice and took another sip of cider.

“I’ve been in love with you for the longest time, Regina.” Emma casually stated.

Regina’s throat went dry, her chest constricted. Her head throbbed so violently she dropped her glass. It fell to the carpet, spilling it’s contents, she didn’t notice nor care as she stared back at Emma who was defiantly holding her gaze.

“It was _my_ magic that jump started yours and made that fucking hat work, wasn’t it?” Emma growled. The lights in the study flickering again, Regina barely noticed. “ _Our_ magic that stopped the Trigger from destroying Storybrooke. _Our_ magic that caused a fucking lunar eclipse!” She ran a hand through her blonde hair, as if trying to calm herself. “It’s always been you and me, Regina. Against anyone who dared to fuck with this town and our family...” Emma breathed deeply, calming again and took another sip of cider.

Regina just continued to stare at her, mouth agape. Wondering if anything that had happened that day had been real, whether she had dreamt it all, if she was still dreaming. It wouldn’t be the first time she’s had fantasies about hearing Emma Swan profess her undying love.

“You swallowed a death curse to save my life.” Emma earnestly stated. “You saved our son from Peter Pan. You gave me happy memories of the life I wished I had with Henry.” Emma laughed harshly. “Well I used to wish for that life. Now though?” She scoffed. “Now I would give _anything_ for it to just be the three of us again. Fuck our pasts, _fuck_ Robin Hood. I was happy when it was just you and me and the Kid looking for the Author.”

Regina choked back a sob. Her hand flying up to cover her mouth, but it didn’t help, because her body start shaking and tears sprung unrelenting from her eyes. Because Emma felt the same? Regina had hoped and wished for it, but to hear it now? _Now_?

She watched Emma staring at her tumbler, blonde hair falling all over her face. Magic undulating from her as if to mystically express the emotions storming within the Dark One.

“What are you feeling?” Regina whispered in worry, glancing to the dagger, wondering if she should command Emma to be calm. She didn’t want to see the blonde so upset, but forcing calm on her felt like such a violation.

That bitter chuckle was back, before Emma lifted her head to look at Regina again. Glittering green eyes filled with pain and regret and yes unadulterated _love._

Emma Swan loved her. _Her_. Regina Mills.

“I feel like I’m going to explode, like something’s pressing at my chest wanting to erupt from it.” Emma described a feeling Regina knew all too well.

“Magic is fuelled by emotion.” She murmured pointlessly. Because Emma knew that already. That’s why the blonde was visibly trying to stay calm. Regina could see Emma struggling, fighting the urge to just unleash that power surging through her veins. But Emma had always been exceptionally unpredictable. She would fight against whoever and whatever sought to bring her down.

Defiant and stubborn to the bitter end.

“I love you too.” Regina found herself confessing. The words falling from her lips like she’d said them a million times before. It just felt right. Too right.

“I know.” Emma gave her a watery smile, tears streaming down her face as well. “I knew even before you did. I haven’t had a lot of people love me before. I mean a couple have said it, but I never really believed them. I struggle to believe words, because I’d been burnt too many times to just trust in them.” She quietly murmured. “But you Regina? The way you love people...” Emma trailed off shaking her head still smiling softly and Regina wasn’t sure what she meant by that, only that Emma _knew_.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Regina wondered.

“You want Robin.”

Regina laughed.

“I thought I was supposed to want Robin.”

“When I –“ Emma suddenly stood from her seat, looking down at Regina who slowly rose too out of pure compulsion alone. “When I met him I instantly hated him.” Emma smirked even as her eyes teared up again. “I used to love the Robin Hood of fairy tales. Kevin Costner in Prince of Thieves was awesome. But when I heard that the two of you were somehow destined to be together... I fucking _hated_ him, Regina. You know why? ‘Cause I was jealous. Because _I_ wanted you.” Emma declared and Regina’s stomach somersaulted at the raw conviction. “All that time in New York I always thought there was something missing. It took a while to figure out what it was, but when we were on our stake out, and making potions in your office, it just fucking hit me like a sledgehammer to the head!” Emma passionately exclaimed a few bulbs and the glasses on the liquor cabinet exploding at her excitement.

But Regina’s eyes remained riveted to the woman slowly walking toward her.

“You are not the same woman you were when that pixie dust lead you to Robin all those years ago. Maybe back then the two of you could’ve worked out. But now? Now, Regina, you are fucking perfect for _me_.” Emma proudly announced. “If fate wants you to be with a former thief and his little boy. _I’m_ a fucking former thief and I already gave you a little boy.” Emma grinned widely causing Regina to beam back at her. “You want a fugly tattoo to make that stick?” Emma waved her arm and Robin’s lion tattoo appeared on it.

Blindly Regina reached out, anticipating and yearning for that spark that usually greeted her when she touched Emma.

They were standing an arm’s length apart. Regina mindlessly rubbing circles over Emma’s arm, more enamoured by the smooth skin beneath her fingertips than the actual tattoo. When she chanced a glance up at Emma‘s face again, it was to find a pair of morbid green eyes settled on her.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.” Emma whispered. “How long it’s going to take for the darkness to take over my heart... But I do know that while I’m still able to, I want to love my parents and Henry. And if you’d let me... I just want to love you too.” She blinked away her ever flowing tears.

Regina could barely see through her own blurring vision as she stepped into Emma’s arms and held her close. The brunette’s entire body went slack. This was why she never hugged Emma. Being held like this by the Saviour was too honest, too right. Something Regina never felt she should want or deserved for that matter.

Slowly she lifted her head to look up into Emma’s eyes again.

“I didn’t want to believe it.” Regina apologised, lovingly cupping Emma’s cheek and drawing their foreheads together.

Emma smiled charmingly.

“I tried to deny it too... But when I saw the darkness surrounding you... I just _knew_ Regina. Nothing else mattered but saving you.”

“I’m gonna save you too.” Regina husked, licking the salt of her tears off of her lips. “I’ll find a way for us to safely be together.” She swallowed. “You and me and Henry.”

Emma grinned and pulled her closer.

“You already have.” She breathed contently. “Can I kiss you now?”

Regina laughed even as she moved forward and pressed her mouth against Emma’s. Each woman let out a contented sigh, keeping their lips locked, becoming lost in physically expressing the love they had just professed to.

They were so consumed by the other, they barely noticed the blast of golden light that shot through their bodies in a glimmering wave that rushed through the entire town.

The kiss was electrifying. They desperately clung to one another, mouths growing urgent and needy, tongues sliding and twirling... Regina’s fingers twisted into Emma’s hair, while the blonde valiantly struggled to keep them both upright as their buckling knees threatened to send them tumbling to the floor.

They parted reluctantly. Soft, lingering kisses to jaws and chins were lazily exchanged until finally their eyes met again: hooded and blissful.

“Well, you did promise that you’d get me my Happy Ending.” Regina grinned at the flustered blonde.

Emma hummed and licked her lips. “Did you feel that too?” She dizzily enquired. “I knew kissing you would be WOW, but that was something else entirely...”

Regina’s smile only brightened, her eyes crinkling at the corners, her heart bursting with joy and relief.

“Yes...” She bit her lip, trying and failing to stop her grin and glanced to the dagger that was still laying on the couch where she’d left it. The dagger that was now completely bare of any names. “True Love’s kiss can break any curse.” Regina laughed and wrapped her arms around Emma, soundly kissing her again.

 


End file.
